Connecticut and New York clash over water disposal site

By Mary O’Leary moleary@nhregister.com @nhrmoleary on Twitter

Published 8:04 pm, Wednesday, August 17, 2016

NEW LONDON >> Gov. Dannel P. Malloy Wednesday said the state will fight any action by New York to close an open water disposal site that would serve the dredging needs of the maritime industry and the submarine base in Eastern Connecticut.

After eight years of study, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has recommended establishment of the Eastern Long Island Sound Disposal Site offshore from New London as an environmentally safe and cost-effective solution for an area that is heavily dependent upon water-related employment.

Malloy was one of a number of officials, including U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2, who gathered at the City Pier Wednesday to show solidarity for the federal plan, which they said is crucial to the future of the Naval Submarine Base and construction contracts awarded to Electric Boat.

Malloy was interrupted continually as he spoke by a train whistle as rail cars moved along a nearby track. The pier is located at the intersection of a port, an Amtrak station and ferry service.

“Sooner or later, we will schedule one of these (press conferences) in between (the train) arrival,” he said.

The governor said Eastern Connecticut depends on predictable dredging of its ports and harbors, where marine-related activity generates $4.8 billion in economic output and supports more than 30,000 jobs.

Without this nearby disposal site, the costs would increase, as would the environmental risks from spills and carbon emissions, he said.

“We should share this great resource of Long Island Sound and we should do everything we can to keep all portions of it safe and navigable,” Malloy said.

“This stuff is tested, it is looked at, we understand what it is. ... There really are not two sides of this issue. This is a shared resource ... and we need to share the responsible disposal of the materials that need to be removed,” Malloy said.

Courtney said the last-minute objection by New York to the plan is a reversal of the 35-year cooperation between the two states over safe dredging disposal. The EPA, as part of its report, said these past activities “have not resulted in unacceptable or unreasonable environmental degradation.”

New Haven has started the approval process for deepening its harbor to accommodate larger vessels, with an eye toward increasing business at the private terminals there.

Judi Sheiffele, who heads the New Haven Port Authority, said the port’s use of the Central Long Island Sound Disposal Site is not in dispute.

But if that site was used on a regular basis by the Navy and other marine industries from Eastern Connecticut, it could negatively impact New Haven by filling it up ahead of schedule.

This would greatly increase the cost of disposal and skew a cost-benefit analysis if New Haven, at some time in the future, could no longer use the Central site.

Courtney said the 30-year plan put forth by the EPA balances all the interests. In its simplest form, Courtney said the proposal solves a mathematical problem.

He said there are about 23 million cubic yards of material that will have to be removed over three decades from the eastern region of Long Island Sound, 79 percent of it generated on the Connecticut side.

The plan has a preference for upland disposal to enhance beach areas and other on-land activities, with an estimated 40 percent falling into this category.

It is the remaining 60 percent that the EPA said is not suitable for those uses, but could be safely disposed of in an open water site.

New York disagrees with the EPA’s total projected dredging needs of the Sound over three decades and argues that they can be accommodated at the Central and Western sites.

The EPA, however, has said the Central and Western Long Island disposal sites cannot take on the volume of material that will be generated. It said collectively they were never intended to meet the needs of the entire Long Island Sound region.

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Courtney said there also is a new regional process in place that will review specific dredging plans as they come forward. “This plan is not rubber-stamping past practices,” he said. “People will have a voice if there are real legitimate concerns.”

Crucial to the area, Courtney said, is a dependable disposal site om which the Navy can depend, so the submarine base can survive the next federal base closing review process.